you you you good evening I'd like to call to order tonight's meeting of the Burnsville Egon Savage ISD 191 School Board today is June 13 2019 and the time is 6:30 p.m. I'd like to welcome everyone who's joining us both in person and at home thank you for for coming to listen in on our work together with that Director Miller would you please lead us in the Pledge all right we will open tonight's meeting by approving tonight's agenda do I have a motion to approve moved by director Schatz seconds welcome seconded by director Miller is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving the agenda please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay and the motion carries starting our information portion of our meeting tonight we will start with future ready community strong and I'd like to welcome Robby Bunnell foundation 191 president to the podium we're going to learn more about the foundation 191 grant recipients and guests good evening gerald superintendent Amoroso and board directors thank you for letting us be here tonight my name is Robby Vanel and I'm the current president of foundation 191 which is the Education Foundation for the burns elegance average School District I am here on behalf of the Foundation Board to announce the 2019 2020 foundation 191 grant award recipients each year the foundation receives grant requests from district staff for project or activities that are intended to support curriculum the physical and/or emotional well-being of our students and to facilitate community outreach and each year we are amazed at the creative thinking and the compassion of our teachers this grant program is the heart of the Foundation's mission which is to enrich enhance and expand educational opportunities for students in the district we're excited to share with you some really cool and innovative project proposals that came to us this year but first I would like to share the numbers with you this year we had 26 grant applications submitted 18 requests were granted 11 were partially funded seven were fully funded and eight schools were impacted project awards this year totaled over $11,000 and will reach over 5,000 students and their families as I announce the awards I will share a brief description with you I'm not going to read all the PowerPoint it'll be on our website if anybody wants to read the whole thing this year's awards are from Burnsville high school Junior Achievement finance park this program combines classroom learning in the areas of income savings credit and budgets culminating in a visit to an exponential learning facility from Sky Oaks Elementary peaceful playground recess kit this provides a safe organized play playground that is developmentally appropriate also from Sky Oaks the sky flyers sky flyers is the leadership team for fourth and fifth grade students who are making a positive impact on their school from William Byrne we have school-to-home math bags there were two grants given one at the kindergarten level and one of the third grade level students are given bags with math games in them to take home which will help reduce screen and master math skills native you seeds for education understanding and growing native plants that are native to Minnesota to increase the number of pollinators that one actually looks really interested from Ron Elementary they are having their 50th anniversary celebration this year and they're very excited about recognizing their history and embracing the changes in their neighborhood and showcasing their amazing school community from Marian W Savage we have the whale tail publishing Center the whale tail publishing Center has been around at MW for a long time it's a really great program it takes students through the publishing process from start to finish which includes writing illustrating dedicating their story and then sharing it with their peers and families from Hidden Valley Elementary we have growing resilience this provides practical tips and tools for learning coping skills for families and staff and students to thrive during life stressors from Hidden Valley we also have growing roots this provides culturally informed education to parents and guardians on child development and how to access community resources from Harriet Bishop Elementary we have orange hearing for everyone this teaches the sport of orienteering to teachers staff and volunteers who will then teach it to the students to strengthen student physical and cognitive abilities and finally from Nicollet met middle school we have classroom atlases in their grant request they indicated that their atlases were from 2006 and they were falling apart and they were outdated so we're replacing the old atlases to help eighth grade geography students become real world ready by teaching mapping and geography skills the avid binder Hospital that one I had to do a double-take on this is really fun it is going to give binders to avid students learning organizational skills processes procedures and tools to study more effectively diverse an extraordinary book club literature this gives students literature that authentically portrays the real-world problems relevant to our current student population read aloud literature to explore diversity again putting culturally relevant materials in the hands of our students with the hopes that they begin to see themselves in the characters so they can realize that they're not alone the hate you give keeping eighth grade literary literary arts students engaged during novel unit with social socially relevant material which will also include lessons to teach students to find themes and support claims with evidence we are very excited about these projects and we're very excited to follow them over the next year we encourage the teachers and staff to invite us to your activities send us pictures tag and hash tag us on Facebook Twitter Instagram and I just want to say congratulations and thank you to all the teachers and staff who submitted an application we are grateful for your continued efforts to go above and beyond for our students and their families and thank you for letting us be here tonight thank you very much Robby board members comments or questions director Hume Robbie thank you for this great presentation and for all the work that I know the foundation has done to get it at this point I was wondering if you could talk just for just a minute about some of the criteria that you all used and making the decisions for these grants yeah we do have a whole grant guideline and really it it comes down to how it will benefit the students and staff at the district of course and the broad impact on the family are on the students and what I'm noticing kind of a change is we're not just focusing on teachers and students anymore we're really spreading out to their families and the community and we're really excited about that thank you any other questions or comments we really appreciate everything that this group of a really dedicated group of volunteers does on behalf of all of our students and families the your reach is everywhere and many of the projects that the foundation has seed funded are now growing and thriving and it's just it's just wonderful to see so thank you very much well thank you for your support right next superin [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] now we will start the report section of our meeting with starting with the superintendent's report Thank You Gerald's it is the end of the year and the end of the year is always bittersweet for educators because we develop relationships over the course of the year there's a lot of work and effort put into making the year successful for all and there's a lot of joy at the end of the year because of what we've accomplished and so I want to share with you some of the experiences that we had at the end of this year that really celebrate the work that was done first of all if you recall we recently implemented a new district-wide elementary reading program I'd like to share some reading community reflections and part of our reading framework our reading program is that it is based in collaboration and it embeds social and emotional skills as well so these are community reflections from Beth drunkies first grade class at Gideon pond these students were asked to draw a picture and share something they enjoyed about being in this reading community you should be able to see the drawings as they come up the first one the student wrote I like sharing books with others and reading with others my favorite part of the reading community is sharing books with friends rereading the book can make you know the book better I'm going to reread the books because I like to read and I especially liked seeing this one because I remember when I was teaching reading it was often a struggle to get students to reread a book and you know the answer was why I already read that and I would often respond with how many times have you watched your favorite video so that's a really that it feels really good to see that our students are coming out of this new program understanding why and enjoying the rereading of texts the next one I like the reading community because we share by going book shopping and if we don't talk then we can read with others and finally I enjoyed sharing books with others I enjoy rereading it helps us know the book better and certainly a theme in these five and in the others that they shared you'll you picked up on that reading with others and sharing with others that's a significant difference in our reading instruction today than the reocnstruction that many of us may have grown up with or you read it by yourself and you may be discussed with others but you rarely shared the actual reading with others and so these were just really fun to see and it was rewarding to know that they're enjoying what they're doing and that it's making a difference next I want to share an email that a community member sent in and this is just sort of a good news item as we get close to the end of the year we all feel the pull of beautiful spring weather and it's not uncommon for classes to be to go outside June 4th was one of those days and a resident who drove by one of our Elementary's wrote to us about what she saw she said yesterday I drove past Sioux Trail and the children were outside with their teachers all the classes seemed to be on task doing learning listening they had smiles on their faces and I just loved seeing them busy and Bowness outside finally we have nice weather it was just nice to see them that's all sometimes it feels like we only hear about the things that need to be fixed or addressed and so it's always wonderful to hear about things that are going well and I want to thank the resident who shared that with us for that observation of course the last day of school was an exciting one for students staff and parents as it always is this year we asked our 191 community members to share their photos with us through social media with the hashtag last day of school we have a short slideshow to highlight and share with you some of what we saw [Music] and thank you everyone who shared their photos for the last day of school and last graduation is obviously the culmination of the school year and of our students k12 and birth to 21 sometimes experience with us I was fortunate to attend and participate in four events including for students of our best transition program our school for adults our Burnsville alternative high school and Burnsville high school each ceremony is special in its own way and they are all emotional and powerful because of the pride our students families and staff can feel this year our communications team put together a highlight video of our Burtonsville high school graduation that i think captures the meaningfulness of the event perfectly and I want to share that with you now and I'm going to let you know ahead of time that the music in the background was written and performed by one of our graduates and will have credits for her at the end but I want to make sure that that you know that before we start watching ladies and gentlemen joy began Co performing pretty wings [Applause] you're pretty ways you're pretty way spread them outside you're pretty away [Music] during high school we've created the memories that we will have for years to come you know time here has come to Linda you've grown up with your good friend and now it's time to say goodbye to change the world to see Linda [Laughter] [Music] you are here because of the people around you because of the people and your corner and because of yourself don't thank you it is an indescribable joyous feeling to step into a classroom where it is being taught by someone who truly loves to teach I know it feels like [Music] but I'm here to tell you that you're closer to something real beautiful the future we've reached a transition point in our lives where we can learn from ourselves and each other and grow into the people we've always wanted to be oh yes [Music] here's to them won't forget the good times can't forget the bad times no no friends Ville is a diverse community filled with people from all walks of life we take pride in our differences it's what fuels our community we are a place where success is not determined by our race zip code gender religion sexual orientation or any other entity we use to define ourselves a pretty way [Music] we are a place of uplift the hard times that you went through the good things that have come true it's all a part of bombing our best of wishes and good luck you've come so far it's crazy now your graduate you have to keep on fly the world awaits for you to bring forth your greatness just as you have done here at principled high school Burnsville high school has given the class of 2019 the tools to withstand any of life's challenges what you believe is what you will follow so believe in yourself and the future keep looking out windows keep searching and keep seeing what the world has to offer [Music] you're pretty with regulations y'all pretty with [Music] [Music] there's not really much more that needs to be said following that but I do want to thank communications coordinator West ray for putting that video together with cooperation from Burnsville community television if you'd like to watch that again or share it the video is available on our website and YouTube channel and we are going to be sharing that broadly through on different communication means as well so with that congratulations again to all of our graduates as you pursue your plans and dreams I hope you know that you will always be part of the 191 community that concludes my report fort smith Thank You superintendent Amoroso we need a heads up next time that we need to choose board members are there any board member reports director courier I have three of them the association of metropolitan school districts met twice in May the 2nd meeting consisted of a legislative recap by Tom Meltzer and Caitlin Snyder from the Minnesota Department of Education the PowerPoint presentation is on the a MSD website under the tune 2019 board meetings section the presentation is very detailed and I urge both fellow board members and the public to review it it's it's very detailed about the legislative session and um and I've seen it once tried to go through it for this presentation and you can't absorb it but I mean there's lots there so I urge you to review it and this is a report about school district 917 this past Tuesday was the regular June meeting of intermediate district 917 it was held the second week instead of the first week as there are so many end-of-the-year activities and graduations in member districts during the first week our activities included proving the 2019-20 budget reviewing the 1819 operational initiatives the first reading of a for 400 number numerical 400 policies approving several individual employment contracts setting July and August meeting dates approving school lunch prices for the 1920 school year for sites not incorporated in school districts and reviewing and discussing the superintendent's annual evaluation and in case you were wondering I attended for nine 17 graduations besides are for graduations so I attended eight graduations and that concludes that report and then on May 31st chief Tanya Schwartz of the Burnsville police was installed as Chief of Police replacing the retired Erika easkey and several of us were at that event Burnsville has had a police force since 1964 and I believe though I'm not absolutely sure but all six retired police chiefs were at that event but chief Schwartz is the first woman to serve in that capacity Burnsville has Burnsville the city has strong female leadership across the city and that was demonstrated but we have a female mayor we have a female superintendent of schools we have a female city administrator we have a female chair of our school board we also have a female representing our area of the county and our county board so we have strong leadership in our both men and women so I think that represents as well so that was what I've been doing the last couple weeks going to events so that concludes my report name Thank You didi any others dr. Miller on this past Monday evening June 10th are this board's legislative committee gathered in attendance director jester deck heal myself and superintendent I'm Russell we welcomed state representative hunter Cantrell and a lease man so we had a very engaging and productive conversation opportunity to kind of meet and greet and chat and talk a little bit they brought a number of questions they'd heard from constituents it was nothing very surprising so it was a great opportunity to give them some different perspectives on things I think it was I think the formula is working and we're gonna proceed with that in the future so don't think we're gonna have a meeting in July do our usual taking time off but in August and we'll send an invitation to another member of our legislative community so okay thank you very much any others all right with that we'll start the business portion of our meeting starting with the consent agenda although board action is required it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items in the event a board member wishes to discuss an item that item will be moved for separate consideration there anything that board members would like to separate hearing none I will take a motion to approve so moved moved by director courier second second second by director Chester all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay and the motion carries moving to the new business portion of the meeting I would like to invite Lisa Ryder executive director of business services to the podium we are being asked to approve a contract for property casualty and liability insurance for 2019-20 20 welcome Lisa good evening on an annual basis we review with our agent of record the coverage that we have for property casualty and liability insurance 'as across the district on an annual basis we usually bring this to the same meeting in which through the consent agenda the agent of record is being approved as well therefore that happened today to our agent of record remains Klaus Andersen insurance and as we went through this renewal process it usually begins in March with an application process for each of the various different insurance coverages that you see we complete a bunch of information related to a lot of details that they want to know and from there then there is a common process that's occurring with our agent as well as each of these different companies to address any of their concerns that underwriting may have or whatever the case might be and then they come to me and in late May early June with the information as to what that premiums looking like as you take a look at this information there was a little bit of an increase on the international package and the reason there is really around the volume of people that need coverage for international coverage and so that is dependent upon which particular trips are planned and the volume of people going so that can vary from year to year and we do carry flood insurance for one of our locations it's minimal but we do do that so we have coverage there and new midstream last year was the cyber risk and so we now have that in play and we can do we expect to continue that so in whole you see an increase in premiums compared to the previous year of around six point nine percent additional information of past year information where we're going to keep and maintain from year to year so you can see kind of what that looks like the insurance companies themselves did not change this year compared to the previous year slump slight adjustments with regard to a few deductibles in certain areas other than that the premium that is before you is three hundred sixty two thousand hundred twenty four dollars covers all of our property/casualty and liability insurance for the school district with that the recommendation is that the Board of Education approves the contracts for property casualty and liability insurance for the 2019 2020 year with affiliated FM insurance company American alternative insurance company National Union Fire Insurance Company Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Stratford insurance company the insurance company of the state of Pennsylvania auto owners insurance company Admiral Insurance Company and Cincinnati insurance companies thank you Lisa do I have a motion to approve moved by director shot second second second did by director courier are there any questions or comments dr. Miller just clarify for my interest in the public record the the premiums and any increase was in line with your planned budgetary yes so we carry a budget for property casualty liability that encompasses the premium as well as enough in case of events that may occur for deductibles so we're still good with a little bit of room yet for deductible should we need them in case the event occurs should we have more than one or two events though we may have some difficulty in meeting that budget thank you any other questions hearing none all those in favor of approving this recommendation please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay and the motion carries thank you next I would like to invite Jenna dr. Jenna Mitchell ur director director of curriculum instruction and assessment and Rachael Gordon instructional technology coordinator we are being asked to approve the 191 flexible learning plan welcome thank you good evening chair alt board of directors and superintendent MRO so so we did a workshop on May 23rd about our flexible learning days where there was a lot of information provided we're not going to go back through all of that information and the slides but you did have in the board book excuse me a summary that just describes some of the same things you saw in the slides so the why of the flexible learning days some of the parameters around the calendar staff availability flexible learning days and just some highlights of how that works communication and then feedback so I with that I guess the recommendation is just to approve the 191 flexible learning plan tonight great thank you do I have a motion to approve so moved moved by director courier second seconded by director Hume are there questions or comments director shots so we one of the questions I had was about the attendance piece of it and the policies around that and so we resolved whatever concern or whatever conflicts might arise or any issues about that in creating the plan yeah so well I'll start by saying that we have right now a committee I think assistant superintendent Gorsuch mentioned it at our last meeting where we have principal representatives from each of the levels and then we have Rachel's on the committee I am on the committee as well and we're trying to solve some of those issues and we're using our networks to do that rachel is very well networked with a lot of our digital learning specialists in the metro area so other than that committee I'll let Rachel give a little bit more detail yeah so attendance is definitely something that many districts are kind of working through the details MDE had a presentation and earlier in this this spring and at that at that presentation a lot of conversation was had around like attendance they have guidelines that they've set out of what constitutes attendance for those for the e-learning days and so we'll follow the same guidelines that they have as we kind of fine-tune the plan as we move forward yeah so sorry okay they never follow up so our so then as you're as you're working through that then you'll highlight to superintend any any changes to any policies that will need to come to the policy committee should there be any well they'll need to be at least since this doesn't exist in our current policy structure in any way at least that how the attendance works then you'll bring to the superintendent any changes in policy traditions new policies things like that that need to be recommended so the process we see moving forward as the committee diet that I had mentioned will take some of the recommendations from MDE and some of the things that are happening in other districts and then yes great point bring up any if we need to make any policy changes or anything like that bring that before the policy committee any other questions director Miller actually more of a statement just for the benefit of anybody viewing this meeting tonight in a later date it's an unfortunate side effect of the you know that we don't air some of our workshops and stuff so I just want to be very clear you presented a very extensive well thought-out program the other night and there was a number of challenges and questions here there so I think we feel very confident in approving this and I was mostly impressed by the fact that you you're not that you're recognizing that you're often to new waters and and you're open for adjustments and learning in the process so just want to be clear for the public for that Thank You superintendent número so I'll just add to I'll add to Eric's comments that there will be significant communication in August for our parents August September October there will be ongoing significant communication in the fall so while we're not giving all those details tonight I know that our communications department and you have already been working on what that communication will look like it will be multiple times in multiple ways so that we make sure that everyone has that information that that we talked about at the workshop thank you any other comments I just have one because I want to make sure that our community is aware that we really do want to have feedback from our community on how the e-learning days go for their students for their for their families and in this summary it outlines that students staff and parents will be asked for feedback and there will be a survey that will be sent out and then as as usual you know the standard operating practice within our individual schools if you're a staff member or a parent you can always fund you funnel your comments through your principal and we're looking for everything and good bad indifferent we want to know how it's working so that we can continue to tweak and and make it better great with that do I have them all those in favor of approving the recommendation please signify by saying aye aye opposed nay and the motion carries thank you both very much next we are going to adjourn to a workshop on the levy Community Survey results we will take a five-minute recess do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second all those in favor but journeying please signify by saying aye aye and we are adjourned let's say you you